Reading for Children. 



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HISTORY. 



JOHN WINTHROP. 



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Copyright, 1886, by N. Moore. 




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JOHN WINTHROP. 
1630. 

I. 

On a day in March, in the year 1630, a good 
ship rode at anchor off the EngHsh shore. 

She bore a company of EngHsh Puritans 
who were bidding good-by to old England and 
turning their faces toward a new country far 
beyond sight in the west. 

Puritans fared badly in England in those 
days. Their church services and church beliefs 
were not quite like those of the king and 
bishops, and this so displeased the king and 
bishops that Puritan meetings were forbid- 
den, and Puritan preachers driven from their 
pulpits. 

For the sake of being free to worship God 
in the way they thought right, these Puritans 
were setting forth to plant their church over 



seas, in America. Their chief man was John 
Winthrop ; he was to be their governor. 

The ship lay near Cowes, waiting for the 
wind to veer. Day after day she rocked there, 
while gusts swept down upon her from the 
west or southwest, and rain fell upon her 
deck. Stormy March would not let her go. 

Some of the people on board of her came 
from the English town of Boston, among them 
Mr. Isaac Johnson and his wife, the lady 
Arbella. 

Lady Arbella was an earl's daughter, and 
one who had never suffered hardship. She 
found herself now, not in a fine, roomy steamer 
like that in which we would cross the Atlantic, 
but crowded into close quarters on a little 
pitching vessel, with poor food and stifling air. 

She must have grown very tired of the ship 
even before it put out to sea. We are glad 
to read in Governor Winthrop's journal, begun 
at Cowes, that " the lady Arbella and the gen- 
tlewomen and Mr. Johnson and some others 
went on shore to refresh themselves." 



3 

Lady Arbella's name came first in whatever 
Governor Winthrop wrote about the women of 
the company, and her comfort was the first to 
be cared for whenever comfort could be thought 
of at all. 

Every one must have wished to serve the 
gentle and delicate lady; the ship itself took 
on a new name for her. It became the " Ar- 
bella " in her honor. 

Three other ships were ready to sail with 
Governor Winthrop's vessel ; seven more were 
to follow. Governor Winthrop had with him 
on board the "Arbella"two young sons, — 
Stephen Winthrop, a boy twelve years old, and 
Adam, who was only ten. An older son, Henry, 
followed in one of the other ships. Governor 
Winthrops wife and the rest of his family 
did not leave England until nearly a year 
later. 

For a whole week the "Arbella" waited at 
Cowes ; for another week she was anchored 
near Yarmouth, then, on Thursday, the 8th of 
April, " about six in the morning, the wind 



4 

being E. and N., and fair weather," she 
" weiofhed anchor and set sail." 

The captain of the "Arbella" had been told 
at Yarmouth that some Spanish vessels were 
lying in wait for his fleet England and Spain 
were at war then, and English vessels were 
very likely to meet with trouble from Span- 
iards upon the sea. 

On the morning of their second day from 
Yarmouth eight vessels were seen astern of 
them. The captain feared that they might be 
enemies. To put the " Arbella " in fighting 
order he " caused the gun-room and gun-deck 
to be cleared," all the hammocks to be taken 
down, the guns to be loaded, and powder-chests 
and fireworks to be made ready. 

" After noon," the journal goes on to say, 
" we still saw those eight ships to stand towards 
us. Having more wind than we, they came 
up apace . . . wl>ereupon we all prepared to 
fight with them, and took down some cabins 
which were in the way of our ordnance, and 
out of every ship were thrown such bed matters 



as were subject to take fire, . . . and drew forth 
our men and armed them with muskets and 
other weapons and instruments for fireworks, 
and for an experiment our captain shot a ball 
of wildfire fastened to an arrow, out of a cross- 
bow, which burnt in the water a good time. 
The lady Arbella and the other women and 
children were removed into the lower deck that 
they might be out of danger. All things being 
thus fitted, we went to prayer upon the upper 
deck. It was much to see how cheerful and 
comfortable all the company appeared ; not a 
woman or child that shewed fear. . . . 

" It was now about one of the clock, and the 
fleet seemed to be within a league of us ; there- 
fore our captain, because he would shew he 
was not afraid of them, and that he might 
see the issue before night should overtake us, 
tacked about and stood to meet them, and when 
we came near we perceived them to be our 
friends. ... So when we drew near, every ship 
(as they met) saluted each other and the mus- 
keteers discharged their small shot ; and so 



6 

God be praised, our fear and danger was turned 
into mirth and friendly entertainment. 

"Our danger being thus over, we espied two 
boats on fishing in the channel ; so every of 
our four ships manned out a skiff, and we 
bought of them great store of excellent fresh 
fish of divers sorts." 

The children of the ship, and a number of 
the grown people too, were seasick for a time. 
They lay in the close cabin in a very unhappy 
state. One day, when they had begun to feel 
better, Governor Winthrop sent for them to 
come on deck. They dragged themselves up, 
though some of them were hardly able to 
crawl. A rope was then stretched along the 
deck, and they were made to stand, " some of 
one side, and some of the other, and sway it 
up and dow^n till they were warm, and by this 
means they soon grew well and merry." 

Upon the next rough day some were sick, as 
before ; but Governor Winthrop wrote : " Such 
as came up upon the deck, and stirred them- 
selves, were presently well again. Therefore 



7 

our captain set our children and young men 
to some harmless exercises, which the seamen 
were very active in, and did our people much 
good, though they would sometimes play the 
wags with them." 

Too much playing the wag would have been 
quickly checked. Puritan children were taught 
that they should be seen, not heard. Puritan 
young folks were led in staid and serious ways. 
Puritan men and women were grave, even stern. 
They had seen a great deal of folly and sin 
among a light-hearted set of people in England. 
They were so bent on keeping their children 
from folly and sin that they sometimes kept 
them from light-heartedness as well. 

We cross the ocean now in nine, eight, seven 
days. Governor Winthrop was seventy-six days 
in crossing.^ He was at sea through all of 
April, through all of May; and not until the 
6th of June did he come in sight of land. On 
the 8th, these land-hungry voyagers caught a 
glimpse of the beautiful hills of Mount Desert, 
blue, serene, stately, in the distance. 

1 Leaving Cowes March 29, anchoring at Salem June 12. 



8 

The journey had been most wearisome. 
Storm after storm had beaten upon the vessel ; 
the people, cramped in narrow space, had suf- 
fered for want of exercise. Their diet of salted 
meats had caused an illness among them. They 
longed for the wide green reaches of the solid 
earth. 

Rejoice with them, for here Governor Win- 
throp could write : " We had now fair sunshine 
weather, and so pleasant a sweet air as did much 
refresh us, and there came a smell off the shore 
like the smell of a garden. There came a wdld 
pigeon into our ship, and another small land 
bird." 

Four days after that the " Arbella " came to 
anchor in Salem Harbor. 

Salem was a half-starved little settlement, 
held to its high courage by a few brave men. 
Its people looked eagerly for the coming of the 
ships, and, though food for their own daily 
needs was far from plentiful, they had tasked 
their larders to the uttermost to provide good 
cheer for their guests. A supper was prepared 



9 

on shore, — "a good supper," writes Governor 
Winthrop, " of venison pasty." 

The pasty was not for the whole ship's 
company; but those who were not asked to the 
supper found another feast spread for them 
in the kindly fields. Ripe and red it glowed 
under its cool, dark leaves. What a sight for 
sea-parched men ! Governor Winthrop, after 
telling us of the pasty, writes: "In the mean 
time most of our people went on shore upon 
the land of Cape Ann, which lay very near us, 
and gathered store of fine strawberries." 

That same day Stephen and Adam W^inthrop 
had their first sight of a red man ; for an Indian 
paddled his canoe to the ship's side, and, com- 
ing aboard, slept there all night. 

All this fell on a Saturday. The passengers 
remained upon the " Arbella " until Monday. 
Then, leaving the ship, while its guns bade 
them a loud farewell, they took up their abode 
for a while in Salem. 



lO 



II. 



" Salem, where wee landed, pleased us not," 
wrote Mr. Dudley to the Countess of Lincoln, 
Lady Arbella's mother. 

Since they did not care to remain in Salem 
Governor Winthrop and others set about find- 
ing a better site for the town they wished to 
build. The journal says, " We went to Mat- 
tachusetts to find out a place for our sitting 
down." 

Mattachusetts, Masachulets, Messatsoosec, 
Massachusetts,^ — the word was spelled in 
many ways, — meant then only the land near 
Boston Harbor. Salem and Plymouth were 
quite outside of the Massachusetts of those 
days. 

1 Messatsoosec or Massachusetts, it is thought, was the Indian 
name given to a hillock on the shore of Quincy Bay. We know that 
it was also given to the hilly land near the mouth of Charles River, 
and to the Indian tribe dwelling in this part of the country. Part of 
Quincy was known as the Massachusetts Fields, and Blue Hill once 
was called Massachusetts Mount. 



II 

Governor Winthrop visited Charlestown and 
Noddle's Island,^ and went six miles up the Mys- 
tic River. He also found his way to the small 
settlement at Nantasket. Returning, he advised 
the company to remove to Charlestown. 

Trouble was beginning to press heavily upon 
them. The sick did not revive, grumblers 
made bitter complaints, the weak-hearted would 
gladly have gone back to England. Governor 
Winthrop's hope and cheer did not forsake 
him, though these murmurings came to his ears 
at a time when he had his special grief to bear. 
This special grief was the death of his son 
Henry. 

Henry Winthrop arrived in Salem soon 
after his father's return from Massachusetts. 
On the very day of landing he started, with two 
or three of the ship's ofHcers, to see some Indian 
wigwams not far away. " They saw, on the 
other side of the river, a small canoe. He would 
have had one of the company swim over and 
fetch it, rather than walk several miles on foot, 

1 East Boston. 



12 

it being very hot weather, but none of the 
party could swim but himself; and so he 
plunged in, and, as he was swimming over, was 
taken with the cramp a few roods from shore, 
and drowned."-^ 

" My son Henry ! my son Henry ! " wrote 
Governor Winthrop to his wife. " Ah, poor 
child ! Yet it grieves me much more for my 
dear daughter.^ . . . Yet for all these things 
(I praise my God) I am not discouraged." 

He was not discouraged. There was dis- 
couragement enough among his people. They 
looked to him for strength. He laid his bur- 
den aside, that he might help them in bearing 
theirs. 

The company left Salem for Charlestown,. 
but their suffering did not cease. 

Charlestown had not shelter for so many 
homeless folk. Governor Winthrop and others 
of the foremost men used the " Great House," 
which had been put up the year before ; and 
" the mmltitude set up cottages, tents and 

^ Family Records. ^ Henry's wife in England. 



13 

booths about the Town HIll."-^ Samuel Green, 
the printer, who came from England in the ship 
with Mr. Dudley, was one of those who had not 
even a tent to sleep in. Long afterward, when 
he had a very good roof, not only for himself 
but for his family, he used to tell his children 
that when he first came ashore he and several 
others were glad to lodge at night in an empty 
cask ! 

It was a life that none but the strongest 
could endure. The sick sank under it ; num- 
bers of them died. Read this, wTitten by one 
who saw it all himself : " Almost in every fam- 
ily .. . mourning and woe was heard, and no 
fresh food to be had to cherish them. . . . 
,And that which added to their present distress 
was the want of fresh water ; for although the 
place did afford plenty, yet for the present they 
could find but one spring and that not to be 
come at but when the tide was downe."^ 

Lady Arbella was not even well enough to 
get to Charlestown. She lingered in Salem, 

1 Town Records. 2 Edward Johnson. 



14 

and before long "left that wilderness for the 
heavenly paradise."^ "She took New England 
in her way to heaven." ^ 

Looking south across the river, Governor 
Winthrop and his people could see a three- 
peaked hill rising from a peninsula upon the 
further shore. 

The Indian name for the peninsula was 
Shawmut, but the Charlestown folk called it 
Tri-mountain, for its triple hill. 

Tri-mountain had upon it one small cottage, 
in which lived Mr. William Blackstone, — a man 
who seemed to care for books and solitude more 
than for anything else in the world. He owned 
about one fifteenth of Tri-mountain, or Shawmut, 
and had there a garden, a spring, and an orchard. 

His spring was not the only one upon the 
place ; Tri-mountain abounded in springs ; one 
of the best was upon the eastern shore. 

" Mr. Blackstone," say the Charlestown Rec- 
ords, "dwelling on the other side Charles River, 
alone, at a place by the Indians called Shaw- 

1 Cotton Mather. 




15 
mut, where he only had a cottage, at or not far 
off the place called Blackstone's Point, he came 
and acquaint the governor of an excellent 
spring there, withal inviting and soliciting 
him thither." 

Governor Winthrop thought well of Mr. 
Blackstone's invitation ; he decided to take up 
his abode near the " Great Spring," which was 
where our post-office now stands. 

Through the summer, some at one time 
some at another, most of the company crossed 
to Tri-mountain and settled themselves in their 
new homes. One of the first boats touching 
at the Shawmut side of the river carried a 
lively young woman named Anne, who, " being 
at that time but a romping girl," sprang from 
the boat declaring that she would be the first 
to land. She was not only first among her 
companions in stepping ashore, but first among 
all white women in treading Boston soil; no 
wom.an of her race had set foot here before. 

Anne Pollard s life was a very long one ; she 
lived to be one hundred and five years old. 



i6 

Her account of certain matters which no one 
else was old enough or clear-headed enough 
to remember is of service still. She has said 
that our hills were covered with blueberry 
and other bushes, and that the whole place 
was very uneven, abounding in swamps and 
hollows. 

Governor Winthrop did not leave Charles- 
tow^n until the middle or latter part of the au- 
tumn ; then his house, the frame of which was 
already begun, was carried across the river. 
The Old South Church, on Washington Street, 
stands upon what was once Governor Win- 
throp's garden. Mr. Isaac Johnson's land 
w^as where King's Chapel is now. Mr. John- 
son did not live to build upon his land: he 
died in Charlestown, and the lot became his 
burial-place ; it is the oldest burial-ground in 
Boston. 

" About two in the morning Mr. Isaac John- 
son died ; his wife, the lady Arbella, of the 
house of Lincoln, being dead about one month 
before. He was a holy man and wise, and died 



17 

in sweet peace, leaving some part of his sub- 
stance to the colony." ^ 

The Charlestown Records go on to tell us 
that " After the death of Mr. Johnson and 
divers others, the Governor, with Mr. Wilson, 
and the greater part of the church removed 
thither : whither also the frame of the Gover- 
nor's house in preparation at this time was . . . 
carried ; when people began to build their 
houses against winter; and this place was 
called Boston.^ 



^ Governor W'inthrop's Journal. 

2 The name " Boston " was given to the town on the 17th of Sep- 
tember, 1630. The Colony Records say: "It is ordered that Tri- 
mountain shall be called Boston." 



i8 



III. 



Governor Winthrop, when settled in his 
Boston home, wrote: "My dear wife, we are 
here in a paradise. Though we have not beef 
and mutton, &c., yet (God be praised) we want 
them not; our Indian corn answers for all." 

Their Indian corn, alas, soon became scarce ; 
in place of meal the women learned to make a 
poor kind of flour from acorns, and the chil- 
dren were glad to dig clams and mussels to eke 
out their scanty dinners. 

The ship " Lyon " had long ago been sent 
to England for fresh supplies; but week after 
week, month after month went by, and still 
she did not return. 

Winter soon closed in upon them ; winter, 
fiercer, drearier than our winters usually are, — 
colder far than any they had known in England. 
Snow covered the ground-nuts and acorns, ice 
held fast the clams ; the corn was nearly gone. 
" People were very much tired and discouraged," 



19 

say the Charlestown Records, " especially when 
they heard that the Governor himself had the 
last batch of bread in the oven." 

We read that at the very time when that last 
batch of bread was in the oven a man came to 
Governor Winthrop to beg some meal. The 
little that was left was promptly given, and — 
wonderful ! — that same day the ship arrived. 
Cotton Mather tells the story : " On February 
5th, . . . when he was distributing the last 
handful of meal in the barrel unto a poor man 
distressed by the ' wolf at the door,' at that in- 
stant they spied a ship arrived at the harbour's 
mouth, laden with provisions for them all." 

The ship at the harbor's mouth was the 
" Lyon ; " hunger was past, and a Thanksgiving 
Day was kept with rejoicing by all plantations. 
" We held a day of thanksgiving, for this 
ship's arrival," says the journal, and gives the 
date, — the 22d of February, 1631.^ This was 
Boston's first Thanksgiving Day. Salem had 
had one in July, after the safe arrival of the 

1 On the 22d of February, 1732, George W^ashington was born. 



20 

ships. Plymouth had had a famous one ten 
years before, in November, after the gathering-in 
of her first harvest; and this Plymouth Thanks- 
giving Day we celebrate yearly. 

In the spring the settlers planted many an 
acre of pease, beans, and corn. No other win- 
ter should find them waiting for ships to bring 
them food. The cornfields on the slope of the 
southernmost hill gave the hill a short-lived 
name, — the " Corn-hill," people called it. A 
fort soon took the place of the corn, and the 
hill became Fort Hill instead. The fort has 
gone, the hill has been cut away ; and where 
they once were we have only Fort Square. 

The country at the south of Boston was 
given the name " Rocksbury," for its pudding- 
stone ledges. Wolves prowled there, and In- 
dians were not far away. To keep out wolves 
and Indians the Boston folk built a wall on 
the narrow neck between their town and Rox- 
bury; and an officer and six men lived by the 
wall as a constant guard. It was quite near 
the place where Dover Street is now. 



21 

A sentry was posted on the Treamount's 
highest peak ; later, a beacon was raised there, 
— a tall, stout mast with an arm atop, and a 
great kettle of tar at the end of the arm. 
This hill had two names, — Sentry Hill in the 
sentry's time, and Beacon Hill since. 

The Indians, after all, gave the town no 
trouble ; they were always friendly to Governor 
Winthrop. 

Manv of the Indians who had lived near the 
coast had been killed by a great plague which 
had swept through their country some years 
before ; those who were spared by the plague 
had been weakened by wars. The Massa- 
chusetts tribe, once large and powerful, was 
now made up of a very few families, led by a 
chief called Chick-a-tau-bot, " House-a-fire," who 
was himself ruled by a greater chief named 
Massasoit. 

Chickataubot had seen the " white birds " 
of the pale-faces come flying across the water 
to his shore, had watched the building of the 
white men's wigwams, had touched the soft. 






22 

warm garments of the strangers, and listened 
to the thunder which they carried in their 
hands. He wished to make them his allies. 

Leaving his home in Neponset, he went, with 
a band of his people, both men and women, to 
Governor Winthrops house in Boston, and 
there, with his politest words and gestures, 
offered a gift, — a hogshead of corn. Read the 
journal : " Chickatabot came with his sannops 
and squaws, and presented the governour with 
a hosfshead of Indian corn." 

The Governor took the corn, thanked Chick- 
ataubot, and invited him and all who were with 
him to sit and eat. They did so, and then 
began to think of going home. By this time 
great clouds had rolled over the sky, and a 
thunder-storm had begun. Governor Winthrop 
asked his guests to remain ; but Chickataubot 
knew that his people could not long be pleasant 
inmates of an English house, and wisely sent 
them off in the midst of the storm, though he 
himself and one brave and a squaw did stay 
all night. " The next day after dinner he re- 



o • « 



23 

turned home, the governour giving him cheese 
and peas and a mug and some other small 
things." — Journal. 

About three weeks after this, the journal tells 
us, " Chickatabot came to the governour and 
desired to buy some English clothes for him- 
self. The governour told him, that English 
sagamores did not use to truck ; but he called 
his tailor and gave him order to make him a 
suit of clothes ; whereupon he gave the govern- 
our two large skins of coat beaver, and, after 
he and his men had dined, they departed, and 
said he would come again three days after for 
his suit." 

He did not fail to come. " Chickatabot 
came to the governour again, and he put him 
into a very good new suit from head to foot, 
and after he set meat before them ; but he 
'would not eat till the governour had given 
thanks, and after meat he desired him to do 
the like, and so departed." 

Wolves were nearly as plenty as Indians, and 
could not so easily be turned into friends. Gov- 



24 

ernor WInthrop's farm^ on the Mystic suffered 
from them. One evening, "The governour, be- 
ing at his farm-house at Mistick, walked out 
after supper and took a piece in his hand, sup- 
posing he might see a wolf (for they came daily 
about the house, and killed swine and calves, 
&c.); and, being about half a mile off, it grew 
suddenly dark, so as in coming home, he mis- 
took his path, and went till he came to a little 
house of Sagamore John,^ w^hich stood empty. 
There he stayed, and having a piece of match 
in his pocket (for he always carried about him 
match and a compass, and in summer time snake- 
weed) he made a good fire near the house, and 
lay down upon some old mats, which he found 
there, and so spent the night, sometimes walk- 
ing by the fire, sometimes singing psalms, and 
sometimes getting wood, but could not sleep. 
It w^as (through God's mercy) a warm night ; 

1 Called " Ten Hills Farm " because ten hills could be counted 
around it. It was nearly opposite the entrance to Maiden River. 

2 Sagamore John was an Indian. Indians often had several lodges 
in different parts of the forest, and slept in the nearest when out 
hunting. 



25 

but a little before day it began to rain, and, 
having no cloak, he made shift by a long pole 
to climb up into the house. In the morning, 
there came thither an Indian squaw, but per- 
ceiving her before she had opened the door, he 
barred her out ; yet she stayed there a great 
while essaying to get in, and at last she went 
away, and he returned safe home, his servants 
having been much perplexed for him, and hav- 
ing walked about and shot off pieces and hal- 
looed in the night, but he heard them not." ^ 

1 Journal, History of New England. 



26 



IV. 



The ship " Lyon " came again in the following 
November, bringing from England Governor 
Winthrop's wife and the rest of the family, as 
well as John Eliot, and many others. Every 
ship brought more people : Boston grew. 

Life in such a new country could give the 
colonists little leisure ; artisans of all kinds 
were in great demand. Builders, masons, car- 
penters, stone-cutters, joiners, cobblers, had 
more than they could do. Men who were not 
skilled in any such craft became hewers of wood 
and drawers of water, or busied themselves with 
hunting, fishing, digging, planting, reaping, to 
keep the colony from starving. Upon the 
women fell the care of the households, and the 
spinning, weaving, and fashioning of garments. 
Governor Winthrop himself, for example's sake 
and because he wished to bear his share of 
the labor, worked heartily with his own hands 
whenever he saw need. 



27 

A great happiness and hope carried the Puri- 
tans through the trials of these first hard years. 
The freedom which they had come so far to 
seek was found. They now ordered their lives 
as they thought God willed that they should 
order them, and in this they were not hindered 
by any man. Looking forward to the future, 
they could see that their children and their 
children's children might do the same. 

Though they were still subjects of King 
Charles, they were more loyal to their church 
than to any king. They cared more for its 
welfare than for England. The church ruled 
the town. Its meetings called together old and 
young. The first meeting-house stood on King 
Street, — State Street, now ; Brazier's Building 
covers its site. Three times on Sunday, and 
several times through the week besides, the 
people gathered to listen to their minister, 
their church " teacher," their elders, or their 
deacons. Church was rest and healing to the 
weary in spirit, courage and fresh strength to 
the strong. 



28 

No time had these earnest folk for trifling. 
A dance was held to be a sinful waste of hours; 
theatres were left behind, it was hoped, forever. 
Yet the boys and girls were not wholly without 
play; out-door sports were in favor, and in-door 
games by no means despised. Adam Win- 
throp's days were surely far from dull ; his 
father wTote : " The governour and some com- 
pany with him went up by Charles River about 
eight miles above Watertown, and named the 
first brook on the north side of the river (being 
a fair stream, and coming from a pond a mile 
from the river) Beaver Brook, because the 
beavers had shorn down divers great trees 
there, and made divers dams across the brook. 
Thence they went to a great rock, upon which 
stood a high stone cleft in sunder, that four 
men might go through, which they called Ad- 
am's Chair, because the youngest of their com- 
pany was Adam Winthrop." And again, — 
" The governour, Mr. Nowell, Mr. Eliot, and 
others, went over Mistick River at Medford, 
and going N. and by E. among the rocks 



29 

about two or three miles, they came to a very 
great pond, having in the midst an island of 
about one acre, and very thick with trees of 
pine and beech ; and the pond had divers small 
rocks, standing up here and there in it, which 
they therefore called Spot Pond. They went all 
about it upon the ice. From thence (towards 
the N. W. about half a mile) they came to the 
top of a very high rock, beneath which (towards 
the N.) lies a goodly plain, part open land and 
part woody, from whence there is a fair prospect; 
but it being then close and rainy, they could see 
but a small distance. This place they called 
Cheese Rock, because, when they went to eat 
somewhat, they had only cheese (the governour's 
man forgetting, for haste, to put up some bread.)" 

Vanity of dress was frowned down. Young 
girls might not flaunt gay ribbons, nor must 
the gowns of their mothers be too rich or fine. 
Sober tints, quiet manners, were the rule. The 
Governor went plainly clad. 

Late hours were forbidden ; at nine o'clock 
out went the lights. Nine was the curfew hour, 



30 

the '' couvre-feu'' time. In the villages of old 
England a bell tolled the day to rest. Here 
in New England no bell had been heard as yet : 
a drum sounded the curfew here, and beat to 
church on Sundays. Nightly, when its roll was 
heard, embers were raked together and covered 
with ashes, that they might live to kindle the 
morrow's flame. Flint and tinder-box were at 
hand, to be used in case the coals should die ; 
but with proper care the coals did not die, and 
a glow was ready each morning to warm the 
stiffened fingers that searched for its welcome 
heat. Our way of flashing fire from a phos- 
phorus-tipped wand would have seemed like 
magic to Governor Winthrop's boys. 

A watch walked the streets throughout the 
night, shouting the hour with an " All 's well ! " 
Lamps for the street or light-houses for the 
shore there were none. Darkness settled over 
land and sea when the sun was gone. 

Wood was always a great lack in Boston. 
In 1637 Governor Winthrop wrote to his son, 



31 

*' We at Boston were almost ready to brake up 
for want of wood." The hill-sides did not bear 
enough to supply the towns-people with fuel ; 
logs had to be brought from the mainland or 
the islands. 

Governor Winthrop's own wood-pile was 
never low, for he had forest-trees upon his 
farm on the Mystic ; but some of his poorer 
neis^hbors were in sore need. This is what 
he did for one of them : "... In an hard 
and long winter, when wood was very scarce 
at Boston, a man gave him [Governor Win- 
throp] a private information that a needy 
person in the neighborhood stole wood some- 
times from his pile ; whereupon the governour 
in a seeming anger did reply, ' Does he so ? 
I '11 take a course with him ; go, call that man 
to me ; 1 11 warrant you I '11 cure him of steal- 
ing.' When the man came, the governour, 
considering that if he had stolen, it was more 
out of necessity than disposition, said unto him, 
' Friend, it is a severe winter, and I doubt you 
are but meanly provided for wood ; wherefore I 



32 

would have you supply yourself at my wood-pile 
till this cold season be over.' And then he mer- 
rily asked his friends ' Whether he had not effec- 
tually cured this man of stealing his wood?'"-^ 

Years came and went. Boston prospered. 
Twelve times was John Winthrop chosen gov- 
ernor of the colony. In 1649 he died. The 
good he did lives still. 

Listen again to Mather's praise of him : 
" Yea, the governour sometimes made his own 
private purse to be the publick ; not by sucking 
into it, but by squeezing out of it." " 'T was his 
custom also to send some of his family upon 
errands unto the houses of the poor, about 
their meal time, on purpose to spy whether 
they wanted ; and if it were found that they 
wanted, he would make that the opportunity of 
sending supplies unto them!" 

He was " The terror oi the wicked, and the de- 
light of the sober, the envy of the many, but the 
hope of those who had any hopeful design in 



hand for the common good of the nation. 

1 Cotton Mather, Magnalia. 



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